Part 5: The College and Career Competency Framework

Part 5: The College and Career Competency Framework

The College and Career Competency Framework—developed by Drs. Gaumer Erickson and Noonan—offers Tier 1 social and emotional learning (SEL) curricula that include integrated application of intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies into academic coursework. At its essence, this framework promotes the instruction of evidence-based skills that support positive in-school and postschool outcomes for all students.

To help you understand the key concepts for the College and Career Competency Framework, watch this 5-minute video and complete the guided notes on page 7 of your Educator Workbook.

Intrapersonal, interpersonal, and cognitive competency instruction is best provided to all students, as each student must learn and practice the competencies over time and in multiple contexts. Then, data are used to determine which students need additional support. Collaboration occurs across the school, and data guide decisions when implementing competency instruction. Administrators, counselors, teachers, and other educational professionals work to embed schoolwide competency instruction and practice.

Take a closer look at the College and Career Competency Wheel. Each domain is equally important for students, and the domains are closely related to each other.

The intrapersonal domain focuses on students’ internal, reflective capacities.
The interpersonal domain focuses on capacities related to cooperation and interaction with others.
The cognitive domain focuses on effectively processing and using information.

The terms on the wheel are called various things, such as soft skills, social/emotional skills, employability skills, leadership skills, or professional skills. We use “competency” rather than “skill” because competence involves more than the basic skill—competence involves generalized knowledge and application. In other words, students know how to use the skill, why they use it, and when they should use it.

The Foundational Competencies

The competency wheel promotes a common language among students, teachers, families, employers, and community members. An extensive literature review process resulted in 26 competencies that are research based and have been found to improve student outcomes in school and postschool endeavors. Research Guides are available for each competency, located in the Resources section of https://www.cccframework.org/. These guides—including research, assessments, and evidence-based instructional practices—are condensed versions of the literature reviews.

To narrow our focus, thousands of adolescents have identified self-efficacy, self-regulation, assertiveness, and conflict management as their most important areas for growth. In addition, self-awareness and empathy are incorporated to develop these foundational competencies fully.

Let’s listen to one of the curricula developers, Dr. Amy Gaumer Erickson, as she shares the process used to determine which competencies are displayed on the wheel and how the foundational competencies were identified.

The College and Career Competency Framework is designed to work within a multitier system of supports (MTSS), including collaboration across the school community and data to guide decisions when implementing competency instruction. When applying the framework, competency instruction is embedded into core content areas and provided to all students. By teaching a combination of skills across the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and cognitive domains, we develop socially and emotionally engaged, career-equipped, lifelong learners.

You have explored some instructional activities shared with Lessons 1–3 of Teaching Assertiveness in Middle and High School Classrooms (Noonan & Gaumer Erickson, 2017, pp. 1-16). Test your knowledge by completing the quiz on page 8 of the Educator Workbook.

On https://www.cccframework.org/ we provide numerous resources to help you facilitate students’ development of assertiveness.

Next Steps

Use the checklist on page 10 of the Educator Workbook to identify the activities you plan to pursue. Follow the instruction in the Educator Workbook to submit your reflections and earn 9 Continuing Education Units (CEUs).

Activity
1. Use the Teach Students instructional activities to introduce the concept of assertiveness to your students and encourage them to identify their emotions (Lesson 3).
2. Purchase Teaching Assertiveness in Middle and High School Classrooms and extend your instruction by incorporating additional instructional activities that focus on understanding others (Lesson 4), using the listening and paraphrasing strategy (Lesson 5), developing assertive statements (Lesson 6), and changing passive and aggressive behavior into assertive responses (Lesson 7).
3. Review the Assertiveness Assessment Suite: Technical Report on https://www.cccstudent.org/. Create an account to launch the online assessments.
4. Explore the https://www.cccframework.org/ website. Locate the Assertiveness Exploration Resources Padlet and identify two different resources for use in your classroom.
5. Review the Assertiveness Practice Profile for Teachers and rate yourself on Section A.
6. Review the Assertiveness Guidance for Families webpage on https://www.cccframework.org/ and consider how to provide the information to families in your school.
7. Share what you have learned about assertiveness with a colleague or administrator. Include information about the student impacts of teaching assertiveness.
8. Continue your learning through the variety of professional development options. The Professional Learning section on https://www.cccframework.org/ outlines numerous options.

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